


10/19- Jumping in Leaves

by quantumducky



Series: Spooky Month 2019 [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Humor, Kid Fic, Magic, Sanders Sides Spooky Month 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 14:10:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21100760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumducky/pseuds/quantumducky
Summary: It's not like Romanmeantto fall into a portal on his way to school.





	10/19- Jumping in Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> "this time i'll plan ahead so i can get the prompts i want done on the right days without stressing about it," i said, and then did absolutely nothing until today

Roman didn’t get distracted on _ purpose- _ really! He was in the middle of walking to school, and he knew he shouldn’t stop if he wanted to get there on time, but… well, that big pile of leaves in someone’s front yard was just calling to him! He didn’t think he could be blamed for setting his backpack down on the sidewalk and taking a running leap into it. He _ definitely _ couldn’t be blamed for what happened _ after _ that.

See, Roman had jumped in a _ lot _ of piles of leaves in his short life, so he was actually pretty much an expert at this point, and he knew what was supposed to happen. You jumped, you crashed into the pile so it exploded and you skidded on the leaves and fell over _ if _ you didn’t have very good balance, which Roman obviously did, because he was an expert, and then you ran away before anybody could come out and yell at you for jumping in their leaves. That was how it worked. What was _ not _ supposed to happen, and yet did anyway, was this: He jumped in the leaves, and they exploded everywhere as usual, and then he _ didn’t land. _

Well, no, okay, that wasn’t quite true. He did land. He even landed in a pile of leaves. It just wasn’t the same one.

When he reached where the ground should have been and yet kept falling, Roman gasped and shut his eyes. He opened them again just in time to land in a completely different pile of leaves, in the middle of a strange forest. There wasn’t a hole in the sky when he looked up, so he could only assume he must’ve got here by magic. It was too bad he shut his eyes and didn’t get to see it happen, but oh well. He stood up, brushed off the leaves, and looked around.

The forest was dark and spooky. Not that he was scared or anything, obviously, it was just that he knew what spooky was when he saw it. The trees had already lost most of their leaves, and their branches looked like sharp fingers reaching up into the overcast sky. When the wind blew, it made a creepy noise, like a ghost going _ “ooooo” _ to try and scare you. Roman hadn’t ever heard a ghost in real life, but he was pretty sure this was what it would sound like, anyway, if he did. He shivered- not because he was scared, it was the wind!- and started walking in a random direction, hoping to find someone who could tell him where he was and how to get home.

It wasn’t long before he spotted the warm glow of a lantern hanging from a branch of one of the trees. He went towards it and saw another not too far away, and then another. As he followed the trail, the trees grew less bare and more brightly colored with fall leaves, and he knew he was going the right way. Soon enough, the trees thinned out and then went away entirely. Roman found himself standing at the gates of a small town that looked like something straight out of a fairy tale. He might have been more surprised to see it, except that he already knew he got there by magic, so this was honestly pretty much what he had been expecting. He walked into the town and began looking around for someone who might be able to help him.

He walked for a while without seeing anyone at all. There were lots of interesting-looking shops, but mysteriously, they were all empty and closed! Finally, he heard the sound of people talking, and followed it to find a crowd gathered in what he assumed was the main square.

A nicely-dressed man stood at a podium, addressing the gathered townspeople. “As the mayor of this town, I say we have got to do something about this witch,” he announced, and there was a general cheer of agreement.

“She turned all my shoes into hedgehogs,” someone called.

“She cursed my oven so it will only bake oatmeal raisin cookies!”

Roman winced. That _ was _ a terrible curse.

The mayor called for order. “I know, I’ve heard all your complaints. The question is, what do we _ do _ about it?” The crowd was a lot quieter this time, murmuring uncertainly. The mayor sighed. “If only there were someone brave enough to go confront her…”

Roman perked up. Maybe this was why the magic brought him here! He’d always wanted to fight a witch, after all. He ran to the front of the crowd and waved, jumping up and down just in case he couldn’t be seen over the podium. “I am! I’ll go!”

“Oh, would you?” The mayor sighed in relief. “If you can defeat her, young man, we will all be forever grateful. I wish you luck.” And with that, he gave Roman a sword, directions to the witch’s house, and some trailmix in case he got hungry on the way, and sent him off.

The witch lived in a small house in the forest, separate from the rest of the town. By the time Roman got there, he’d picked all the chocolate out of his trailmix and shoved the rest in his jacket pocket, to throw away later when no one was looking. He approached the door and then stood there for a moment, thinking about what to do. He could probably sneak in the window, but- no, a hero shouldn’t sneak into people’s houses, even if they _ are _ evil witches. He nodded to himself and used his sword to bang on the door.

“Witch!” he shouted as soon as it opened, “I’m here to defeat you!”

“Oh!” The witch took a step back, letting the door swing fully open, and he got a good look at her. She looked younger than he would have expected for a witch, and tired, like she hadn’t slept very well. “I- I think there’s been a misunderstanding?”

“But you’re an evil witch!” He brandished his sword at her, and she stepped back again, hands up in surrender. “…Aren’t you? I mean, everyone in the town said you were going around cursing people and stuff!”

“But I’m not! I don’t want to hurt _ anyone!” _ She looked so distraught that Roman didn’t see how evil she could really be. He put the sword down. It had been getting heavy, anyway.

Still, he was skeptical. He crossed his arms. “Then why does everybody say you cursed them?”

“I didn’t _ mean _ to,” she groaned, putting her head in her hands. “I just- can’t get anything right, ever since Toby wandered off…”

“Who’s that?”

She looked up, like she’d forgotten she was talking to him and not just complaining to herself. “Oh, Toby is my cat- my familiar, actually. He helps me with magic, but lately, he’s just been gone- I shouldn’t be worried, since he’s a magic cat and I don’t think anything in the forest can actually _ hurt _ him, but…” She shook her head. “Anyway, without my familiar, all the magic I try to do has been backfiring, and now everyone is mad at me for accidentally cursing them and I can’t fix it without Toby, and I can’t leave my potions unattended for as long as it would take to search the forest for him…” She sighed sadly. “So you can go back and tell them that, I guess. Maybe they’ll believe I’m not just being a jerk if you vouch for me. I promise I’ll fix everything as soon as Toby comes home. This isn’t the first time he’s left to do his own thing, he’s just not usually gone this long.”

Roman looked at her and tilted his head. He wasn’t just going to leave it at that- he was supposed to be fixing the problem here, not just taking messages back and forth! And the witch seemed _ really _ sad about losing her cat, even if she did expect him to come back soon enough.

“If you’re really not evil, then I’ll find your cat for you,” he declared. She brightened immediately.

“Oh, really? Thank you so much- here, if you find him, give him one of these treats so he knows he can trust you.” She handed him a small, fishy-smelling cloth bag, and he set off into the forest once again.

It struck Roman before too long that he didn’t actually have any idea how to go about finding a cat. His friend Virgil had a cat that liked to hide from people sometimes, but it was usually just curled up under the bed or something, and wasn’t allowed outside. _ This _ cat had an entire _ forest _ to hide in, and probably knew how to get around it better than he did.

Still, he gave it his best effort. “Toby,” he called, over and over again, shaking the bag of cat treats. “Here, kitty, kitty…”

After a while, he started to wonder if he was _ ever _ going to find the stupid cat. After _ another _ while, he started to wonder if he was ever even going to find his way out of the forest again, now that he’d walked so far. He was beginning to despair when he heard a noise in the distance that _ just might _ have been a meow. He moved towards it as fast as he could without actually running, so as not to be too loud and scare the animal away. As he grew closer to where he’d heard the sound, he could also hear a very loud purr.

“Toby?”

Roman peeked around a tree trunk and caught a very brief glimpse of the most contented black cat he’d ever seen, lounging on the ground with several small, glowing fairy people petting and cooing over it. As soon as they spotted him, they darted away, and the cat opened its eyes and looked at Roman as if to say, _ How dare you interrupt my nap, strange human? _ He hastily opened the little bag and tossed a treat in front of it as a peace offering.

“You have to go home now,” he scolded while the cat was eating it. “The witch can’t do any magic without you, and everyone’s getting cursed! It’s ridiculous!”

Toby considered this briefly, then trotted up to Roman and wound around his legs once before starting to lead the way back to the witch’s house.

Naturally, the witch was very grateful to have her familiar back. As soon as they walked into the house, she scooped Toby up in her arms, and refused to put him down when he squirmed. “That’s what you get,” she informed him, “for leaving that long and not even telling me where you were going.” To Roman she said, “I really can’t thank you enough for finding him. Is there anything I can do for you in return?”

Oh, right- he’d nearly forgotten. “Well, I do sort of need to get home…”

It didn’t take as long as he would have expected for the witch to craft a portal that would take him back to his own world. He said goodbye and took the sword as a souvenir, and then he stepped through and found himself right back where he started, standing in a pile of leaves. He should have been gone for hours, but it seemed like only half an hour had passed in this world- which was good, because if he had _ actually _ been gone that long, he would have missed school entirely! As it was, though, he was only a little late.

* * *

“Roman, do you _ really _ expect me to believe you’re late because you fell through a magic portal?”

Roman nodded defensively, out of breath from the long story. His teacher sighed. Some of his classmates were applauding quietly, while others giggled at the fact that he’d actually expected that to work.

“It happened,” he protested, “I have the sword right here and everything!”

“That is a stick, and you shouldn’t have brought it inside.”

He pouted. “It’s a sword. …_ Disguised _ as a stick.”

“Just… take your seat, Roman.”

Roman finally did, although he was still sulking a little. _ He, _ for one, had thought it was a _ very _ believable excuse.


End file.
